Learn Physics with Functional Programming

19INTERACTING PARTICLES

In Newtonian mechanics, forces that act on particles are produced by other particles. The goal of this chapter is to develop the key ideas that will allow us to predict the motion of multiple interacting particles: Newton’s third law, the two-body force, and the distinction between internal and external forces. As usual, we’ll express these ideas in code.

We’ll begin the chapter by discussing Newton’s third law. We’ll then develop the idea of a two-body force to express the notion that an interaction between two particles leads to one force produced by one particle on a second particle and simultaneously leads to another ...